Rev. Jesse Jackson<\/a> was a national voice for justice \u2014 marching, preaching and pressing America to confront inequality. But leaders in the Tampa Bay area say his impact here went far beyond speeches.<\/p>\nPastor Louis Murphy, who now leads Mt. Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, says Jackson\u2019s presence in the city during a moment of crisis helped shape his own life and calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings were bad,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cBut they thought, and they marched, they protested, they ran for political office, they did things the right way for the right reason. And we really are a better nation today because of the sacrifices that people like the Reverend Jesse Jackson made.\u201d<\/p>\n
In April 1994, as St. Petersburg struggled with rising crime, drugs and youth violence, Jackson came to the city at the invitation of Mt. Zion\u2019s pastor at the time. He led a march of nearly 400 people through the community and delivered back-to-back sermons at Mt. Zion and nearby Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church, urging residents to reclaim their children and their streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in a time where there was a lot of violence in the city. Drugs, and things of that sort,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cAnd he came, and he spoke, and he marched to try to combat some of the violence and drugs that we were dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy described that moment as one of renewal and hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was certainly a period of restoration,\u201d he said. \u201cTo try to encourage people that drugs is not the answer. There\u2019s a much better way.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Murphy, the impact was also deeply personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recall having a little sidebar conversation with him that changed my life,\u201d he said. \u201cTo have a personal conversation with him really just turned my life around.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, in a statement, said Jackson \u201creminded us that progress is strongest when it is inclusive \u2014 when people of every race, background, and neighborhood come together around shared opportunity and shared responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson would continue to return to Florida during moments of crisis and reflection, including after the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin. Two years later, he returned to the Tampa Bay area for a 2014 event connected to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, continuing the same message he preached for decades \u2014 accountability, opportunity and hope.<\/p>\n
Today, Murphy says Jackson\u2019s work lives on through the daily efforts of churches and community leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the issues that he stood for \u2014 we\u2019re doing that every day,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cWe\u2019re in the trenches every day.\u201d
Jackson is being remembered in Tampa Bay not just as a national icon, but as a leader who showed up and left a lasting mark when the community needed him most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, the longtime civil rights leader and Black icon, died Tuesday at 84 years old.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-159026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}